Free Dirty Rush by Taylor Bell Page B

interest in. They liked me and I was starting to actually like them. I was no longer on the outside looking in.
    Meg led us farther into the house and up some stairs that I hadn’t seen at the last party. The group continued down a long hallway that led to another set of stairs, guarded by a huge dude who must have been an OS brother. He waved us through. Before entering, Meg turned to us all and said: “We shall steadfastly love each other. And also, don’t do too much coke.”
    The door led to a huge wooden balcony overlooking the backyard of the house. Arcade Fire was blasting, and there were tiki torches, a full bar, and a view of the whole campus. The energy was incredible. There were probably about sixty or sopeople hanging out and drinking. I quickly scanned the crowd to see if Jack was there, but didn’t see him.
    â€œTell me you don’t love this!” Olivia yelled into my ear.
    â€œYeah. This is awesome. Is it always like this?”
    Olivia just smiled back at me, winked, and walked away. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I found myself looking right into Jack’s beautiful blue eyes.
    â€œHi,” I offered, trying not to smile, but I wanted to.
    â€œHey. You finally made it.”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œYou look great.”
    â€œThanks, I tried.”
    â€œYou guys get lost on the way?”
    â€œUm . . . last-minute hospital detour for a girl in need.”
    â€œSounds fun. Everyone live?”
    â€œOh yeah. NBD.” I shrugged.
    â€œGood.” He took a swig from the red cup in his hand. “A sister in need is a sister indeed.”
    â€œOr whatever.”
    We both laughed.
    â€œI unfortunately can’t stay up here because I’m presiding over the beer pong tournament in the basement. But I wanted to come up and see you for a sec while I had the chance.”
    â€œI’m glad you did.”
    Jack leaned in and gave me a short but conscious kiss on the cheek.
    â€œSo, are we still on for dinner Tuesday?” he asked with his sly smile.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œIthought we made plans for Tuesday?”
    â€œOkay, you know that we didn’t. But nice try.”
    â€œFine, fine. But we should. Come down and find me if you have a chance later.”
    After standing there for a minute, perplexed by the interaction Jack and I just had, I realized I must have looked very alone, so I found Meg. She was sandwiched on a couch between a couple of guys doing lines of coke off of some random girl’s stomach. The girl had her shirt rolled up to the bottom of her boobs and her head hung, dangling off the edge of the wicker table. If she hadn’t looked so completely content with her current position, I would’ve probably felt a little embarrassed for her.
    I’d only done cocaine once before, on New Year’s with Jonah and our friend Beth from back home, and thought it was medium fun but I never really got it. It basically just made me want to smoke cigarettes (which I don’t ever want to do) and talk about my family (which I also don’t ever want to do).
    â€œLook who it is,” Meg said as I sat down in an empty chair next to the couch.
    â€œSo this is where you’ve been?” I said.
    â€œWant some coke?”
    For some reason I wanted to do something “bad” tonight, so I obliged.
    â€œSure!” I said, the enthusiasm in my tone was surprising even to me, “Why not?”
    Meg handed me a small plastic baggie of white powder and her set of sorority house keys on a sparkly silver BZ keychain. She motioned that I ought to dip the key into the bag, like ashovel, and then put it up to my nostril and inhale. She did this silently so as not to embarrass me in front of everyone, which I appreciated. I took a couple of sniffs, or rather “bumps,” and passed it back to her; then the baggie went around the circle and then back to me. This went on for the